CLSG is leaving the North London Consortium next year

[Daogroupie]

These are excellent interesting points especially 1 and 3. Thank you.

Point One: If the prep parents are just being told that their students are a year ahead of the average state student then that is a very low level indeed compared to the state schools students who win places at selective state grammars and a wide range of selective private schools.


Point Three: The fact that the top maths students in the senior school are from state primaries, not the CLSG prep or other preps, shows that the impact of focused preparation can be more than 7 years of prep school. I know the student with the highest maths mark at DAO and the student with the highest possible maths mark (100%) at QE this year and they are both from state primaries.

In my experience prep students are generally better at Maths than English.

Point Two: Such a strong takeup from prep to senior shows that either the parents are very happy with the school or feel very loyal. How many preps are there? DG

[HotCrossBun]

Point One: If the prep parents are just being told that their students are a year ahead of the average state student then that is a very low level indeed compared to the state schools students who win places at selective state grammars and a wide range of selective private schools.

To be fair, I don't know personally what all the prep-schools are telling parents. I am just noting that there are children in every state school classroom who are also working 2 years ahead of the state schools on average!

The fact that the top maths students in the senior school are from state primaries, not the CLSG prep or other preps

Apologies DAO, when I said "outside preps" I meant preps other than the CLSG prep. The state school pupils are doing fine, but none are at the top of the class. The top of the class is made up of prep school pupils who came from other schools and had 11+ tutoring on top of it all. They all have five more years to go. It will be interesting to see whether there are girls who are less prepared at year 7 but who love the subject and can "grow into it" or whether an early advantage is set in stone.

How many preps are there? DG

I don't know exactly. I feel bad to ask my DD to many precise, nosy questions. (Though, I am a nosy person!) Early in the year she mentioned that the girls who had been in the prep school told her that all the girls came up except for one.


My personal suspicion about the maths, and it's only that, is that in the prep school they are not focusing on the sort of rote drilling and learning that can be a big help in the early stages of maths but instead taking a more "wholistic" approach which they think will pay off in the long run. This would certainly "feel" in line with the school's general philosophy.

[ToadMum]

Point One: If the prep parents are just being told that their students are a year ahead of the average state student then that is a very low level indeed compared to the state schools students who win places at selective state grammars and a wide range of selective private schools.

To be fair, I don't know personally what all the prep-schools are telling parents. I am just noting that there are children in every state school classroom who are also working 2 years ahead of the state schools on average!

The fact that the top maths students in the senior school are from state primaries, not the CLSG prep or other preps

Apologies DAO, when I said "outside preps" I meant preps other than the CLSG prep. The state school pupils are doing fine, but none are at the top of the class. The top of the class is made up of prep school pupils who came from other schools and had 11+ tutoring on top of it all. They all have five more years to go. It will be interesting to see whether there are girls who are less prepared at year 7 but who love the subject and can "grow into it" or whether an early advantage is set in stone.

How many preps are there? DG

I don't know exactly. I feel bad to ask my DD to many precise, nosy questions. (Though, I am a nosy person!) Early in the year she mentioned that the girls who had been in the prep school told her that all the girls came up except for one.


My personal suspicion about the maths, and it's only that, is that in the prep school they are not focusing on the sort of rote drilling and learning that can be a big help in the early stages of maths but instead taking a more "wholistic" approach which they think will pay off in the long run. This would certainly "feel" in line with the school's general philosophy.

A slight diversion (sorry): MIL somehow managed to avoid having to learn her times tables (secondary school was a 'progressive' Quaker boarding school; I always assumed that she attended a normal primary before that, but I may be wrong). At the age of 77, she still has no 'mental picture' of multiplication, if you see what I mean.

[Daogroupie]

hard to imagine. It comes up so often in daily life. DG